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11-27-2022 icon

Independent analysis confirms GBTC’s 633k BTC holdings, questions on why Grayscale refused disclosure arise

By Lucy Adegbe
GBTC

Following investment and property management company Grayscale’s refusal to disclose evidence of holdings for its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), an autonomous critic has committed days to unravel all of its blockchain reserves.

OXT analysis reviewer, Ergo, utilized blockchain-based forensics to ascertain that GBTC had an estimated 633,000 BTC kept under its guardianship protocol Coinbase Custody, as noted in its Wednesday tweet.

The recent fall of FTX has spread tension across the crypto community and it has become a necessity that trading protocols alongside virtual property administrators confirm the holdings they contend to have.

GBTC crash and any form of insolvency from its end might be a major hit in the digital space. Many have raised anxieties regarding Grayscale’s connection with troubled digital currency loan platform Genesis Global Trading, as both protocols are subdivisions of the parent company Digital Currency Group.

Ergo published a tweet, on November 20th, noting that  they were examining the digital reserves of GBTC, following Grayscale’s “security” justification for not disclosing its proof of holdings on the 18th of November.

Publishing the verified reserves of GBTC, which would bolster the trust of investors, Ergo underlined a query to understand why the protocol had originally refused to confirm its proof of holdings. 

Twitter account Skyquake-1 posted that GBTC is probably just trying to adhere to instructions, citing the platform’s 2017 securities and exchange commission signup, which noted that digital currency guardian “may not disclose keys to the Sponsor, Trust or any other individual or entity.”